Well, & really does put a job in the background, but some programsjust aren't suitable to this. In particular, interactive programs,and I suspect this is the problem.

Try starting the program manually in an xterm. That will show youwhat input/output it expects. If it has interaction, then it's notsuitable for running in the background. Screen just gives youmultiple terminals inside a single console (it predates X windows).You can accomplish the same thing simpler and better with multiplexterms.

You'll have to check the Shoutcast documentation for how they expect theserver to be started and stopped. I skimmed through www.shoutcast.com,and they were talking about running some program for a bit, thenputting it into the background with ^Z and bg. That suggests thefirst part is interactive.

The difference between rc.local and cron is that rc.local is run onceat boot-up time. Cron jobs are run at regular intervals. Rebootingis not really relevent, except of course, that it reruns rc.local.But if that's all you care about, just run that part manually.